Pam Jenoff's Backstory

I did not set out to write a continuation of The Kommandant’s Girl. But one day while I was brainstorming ideas (embarrassingly enough in the shower, where many of my better ideas pop up), I was astonished when Marta, who had been Emma’s best friend in The Kommandant’s Girl, raised her hand and said “it’s my turn.” I, like many readers, assumed she had died after saving Emma on the bridge, and I was most surprised to discover that she had survived not only her wound but also the torture and suffering of a Nazi prison. I decided then and there that she deserved to have her story told.

  I was surprised, too, at Marta’s jumping off point for the story. The Kommandant’s Girl ended in the middle of World War II, but The Diplomat’s Wife picks up years later as the war is just ending. The new historical time period raised many questions: How did displaced persons, left devastated and homeless by the war, find their way to new countries to make new lives? Once there, what were their relationships like with the places they had left behind? And what of the people who stayed in Eastern Europe, only to find themselves confronted with a new kind of war?

Marta’s story – from her recovery in a displaced person’s camp in Salzburg and tragically brief love affair with the American soldier Paul, to her new life in London and unexpected return mission to Eastern Europe -- has proven to be fertile ground for exploring these questions, as she steps out into the world for the first time as a woman, embracing life over adversity and finding love in the most improbable of places.

At first, I was a bit hesitant as to how the story would be received. Marta is not Emma; she is gawky, with none of Emma’s grace. And though heroic, she had been far from perfect in The Kommandant’s Girl – she had coveted Emma’s husband, judged Emma’s choices harshly. But the decision to write Marta’s story proved to be pure kismet: after The Kommandant’s Girl was published, I received a deluge of questions from readers, wanting to know what happened next. Did Emma find Jacob? Were they able to escape? Whose baby was she having? And what, by the way, had been going on between Marta and Jacob on all of those long missions for the resistance? By writing The Diplomat’s Wife, I’ve been able to answer these and many other questions, bringing the story full circle while at the same time creating a new and different chapter in the saga of these remarkable women.

Please visit Pam Jenoff's website to learn more about her work.

Comments

[Karen Dionne]

Fascinating backstory, Pam! I loved Kommandant's Girl, and can't wait to read this one!

[Danielle Younge-Ullman]

I love this story about your story. So funny that you're brainstorming in the shower! This is a gorgeous cover, btw, and I look forward to reading the book.